Posted by Joel
Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:26:40 GMT
(I wrote this a few weeks ago while in a rare mindset, but decided to wait and see if I would still want to post it later. Tonight, I feel like posting it.)
Just realizing, looking at my blog tonight, how many gaps in time there are, and how much I leave out. Really, the only reason I don't blog regularly is laziness. I should clarify that, if it isn't obvious, I got shaken off my fitness routine after moving from Marc's place, which was where my gym was. Which is why, six months later, I'm still about the same level of fitness as when I last posted my progress.
I've been thinking of taking the whole fitness thing seriously again but have honestly been pretty lazy about finding a gym that fits within my routine. I know my productivity has increased dramatically with time, and yet I still look around and see such a lazy person when I think of what I really have to do.
I've gone out in the city a number of times to dinners and shows and clubs and bars, played Guitar Hero and Rock Band for the first time, tried playing Eve Online with Goonfleet for a while (I've now quit). Dad visited SF for a few days, twice during the last six months. Mom has also come up twice, with Anne once. I have even had a girl or two on my mind for the first time in a while. That's probably surprising to me because for the year I was in San Jose I barely ever saw any.
And then, you've got to consider all the stuff I don't dare mention in this blog. Man, there was a time when I was younger I wrote too much in these things. And I still catch myself doing it. Every time I look back a year or so I think "My God, why did I write that on the internet? That's there FOREVER now!" My natural recourse is to delete the blog, keeping it in my private records, not posting at all for a few months to a year, and when I feel the urge to blog again, start a fresh one.
This blog only goes back a while, but I've been blogging since I was around 14 years old, in 1996. Simply updating some webspace I got from our ISP with an HTML page I coded up. Heh, I've been doing geeky stuff on the internet since I found out about it. I have them all still, all except one year which is lost forever. I deleted the only copy because I spent the year fawning over some girl, airing my family and romantic business online, being overly dramatic. But now, I really wish I hadn't lost it. Even though I can't stand to read my old blogs because they're so embarrassing. Maybe when I'm 50 I'll look back fondly, I don't know.
I don't know if life will ever feel quite as passionate as it did back then. But I'd say it's getting better. To discount that things are getting better is to fail to acknowledge how bad they've been.
This weekend we did karaoke, that was a lot of fun. It was the Affinity team, at Kamna's place. Afterwards we went to a club, but I like a complete dork had my laptop still with me because I hadn't been home since work, so I went home shortly after arriving.
(And this part, I wrote tonight.)
More people than I think have probably Googled me and read through this thing, and my Twitter messages, and so many other things. I don't know what to say besides that this blog seems like a poor description of who I am. Maybe I'll change that. Maybe I won't.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:29:23 GMT
Almost forgot, my birthday was January 19th (as usual). So, I'm now 26. It's been a very important year for me and I've changed a lot as a person. I sincerely feel like I've matured so much in the past year, more than any other year, but I still see I have a ways to go. The path feels much more identifiable, though, and I think I'm going about things correctly for once.
To celebrate, I got together some friends, and we went to Nihon, a "Japanese whisky lounge". Altogether ten of my friends showed up, many of them from Zurb: Mark Otto and his girlfriend, Aiden and Gianna, Robert, Andres, Ryan, David and Katie, my roommate Megan. It had some great food and drinks, and was expensive, but my friends graciously picked up the tab, much to my distress.
It was a real pleasure to have so many of my friends around, and to even realize for the first time how many friends I had here in the Bay. It's amazing, considering how difficult and lonely life was for the first year or so I was here.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:08:00 GMT
I haven't updated in a while so I'll give you a brief run-through of what's happened in my life.
The most important thing to happen to me is that my company, Affinity Labs, was acquired, by Monster. To be blunt, it means I made and will continue to make a considerable amount of money due to the stock I held in the company. You're likely curious as to the exact amount but I'm not sure how appropriate it is to give that information out. It's a life milestone of sorts, and with it has come a lot of varying emotions and experiences. I always feel bad when I know I've been boasting, but at the same time I want to celebrate my success with my friends and family.
And that should transition elegantly to the next two things, Christmas and Thanksgiving. For Christmas, I went back to the Chicago suburbs to spend time with my dad and step-family, as well as my childhood friends, mainly Hans, Bill, and Dave. I spent some great time with Katie and also Matt as well. New Years Eve was actually a fairly great one in recent memory and I'm really glad to see how my friends are turning out, and I miss them a lot.
Thanksgiving I went to LA. My grandfather, fully aware he is not long for this world due to his ailing health, has been very appreciative of us. I want him to feel good about his family, so I'm going to do what I can to visit him this weekend for his 80th birthday party.
Aside for these events, my life has consisted of fairly enjoyable, stress-free, and productive work days. In my off hours I like to study politics, the economy, and finance and discuss them with my geeky friends online, and sometimes actual people I know, although they typically aren't as interested.
I was a Ron Paul supporter, and still think he's a good man. However, I ultimately am maintaining my Democrat registration and will vote for Obama in the primary. If it comes down to it I will vote for Hillary in the general. My key issue is the Iraq and Afghanistan occupation. I will try to go into more detail on my re-evaluated political positions, having been focusing on them so much during this election. I'd like to make more focused posts on this site, and not just discuss my life.
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Posted by Joel
Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:40:22 GMT
Sorry about that previous post (which is now deleted). I know it was rambling and nonsensical. I'd had a bit to drink and started writing the kind of post which has not been my style in a while. While it's true I've been trying to approach disputes from a more cooperative, dialectic standpoint, that's really all that needs to be said on the matter. There is still plenty of need to cut throats.
Here is a summation of the last month (which is much more appropriate). Work has been going pretty well. There have been some big changes in the staff, most notably Aiden joining the company as an interaction designer. Together we have been trying to get a lot accomplished within Affinity that needs to be done.
I went to my cousin Scott's wedding up in Seattle. It was a really great wedding, casual, short, and comfortable. Very much his style. They had little Miis on top of their cake.
A number of us, Robert, Aiden, Sam & Bruce, Gianna, went to see Patrick Wolf. I was really impressed by his very gay show. There have been comparisons drawn to Bowie. He knows how to entertain. Hooliganism followed.
I've left the two IRC channels I spent the most time in. One of them was over a banning dispute and the other was because I felt kind of in the mood to leave IRC. I know I've left IRC "permanently" before only to return, but I feel surprisingly content without my usual crutch.
Our WoW 5v5 team is doing even better, now making it up to a 1741 ranking. I made a video of one of our matches.
I've really been appreciating the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows. It's a great everyday album.
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Posted by Joel
Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:48:01 GMT
Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. I'm happy to say I like my new job. I feel very comfortable there already and like the management is very smart. The other engineers are good.
Unfortunately, not only have John and Malgosia Green now quit, but Tung has announced he's going to quit as well. I think the move is an odd one and is disappointing. Either way, the rest of the engineering staff seems pretty content with the place, and we're going to hire more soon.
I've been working on some new features and refactoring code in the process. I've actually become an advocate of organization, automated testing, and release schedules; my goal is to avoid the havoc of my last job a bit and obtain a productive work life that is well balanced with enjoyable time off.
There are a few things I've come to realize lately. When you come to work here they give you the book Getting Things Done. I'm reading it now and it's had a definite effect on my stress levels. I really worry much less now. I'd recommend checking it out.
The other realization is that programmers are often timid and this becomes their own downfall. Agreeing to the whims of management, who does not understand what's going on under the hood, is a fatal mistake for your own sanity, and the company. Coders will actually feel guilty when they secretly take time to clean up code. This is where lots of their stress really comes from.
So my new goal is to be productive and stress-free.
I'm also now staying at Aiden's permanently, as he's moved out to live with Gianna. I kinda like this spot.
This weekend I went down to visit my mom, sister, brother, and Ben's girlfriend. Ben recently moved to Colorado to be close to her in an effort to shake his life up and pursue something new.
We went to Montana del Oros, climbed amongst the rocks, watching the waves crash. The sun set. I took some pictures with Julia's camera and now I want an SLR.
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Posted by Joel
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 06:41:08 GMT
The last few weeks I've largely spent fixing up and stabilizing LuckyOliver to the best of my ability. I've also been looking at lots of apartments, primarily focused around the Mission district. The demand is so high that you will go to these open houses and there will be probably a hundred people going through over the course of the day. One of the open houses was only around for 15 minutes and was three hours after the notice was posted at Craigslist. Regardless when I got there it already had around 20 people for a $1250 studio.
So, I haven't found a permanent new residence yet, but luckily I have some time to be picky. I'm presently staying at Aiden's place for a couple weeks. He has two roommates, Megan and Karen. Aiden is staying with his girlfriend Gianna, where he has been living for the last few weeks. Both he and I start our new jobs tomorrow; he's at Publicis Modem. But anyway, if I need to stay longer I have another temporary housing option lined up, and in the last case scenario I would just commute from my San Jose apartment. Having done this a few times, I am fairly comfortable with the process.
As for LuckyOliver, leaving the team was very painful. The last day really brought out a lot of emotion in me. But now that it's over, life is continuing. I'm still working for LuckyOliver, keeping the ship running behind the scenes, as a consultant, until proper replacement(s) can be found. But, I have a new job now so I won't be able to dedicate the same amount of time on feature development.
Mark, a new Zurb employee, is presently staying at my place for the same two week duration I'm staying here. He just got here from Wisconsin and was staying in a hotel since he didn't have a place yet either.
I'm glad to be back up in the city. Tomorrow will be a big day.
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Posted by Joel
Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:04:23 GMT
Time for a late night post now that a long site maintenance downtime is done with.
I've really been having a tough last few weeks and I don't think the coming ones are going to be much easier. Somewhere along the line I decided, it having been a year at LuckyOliver, that I would look around and see what was out there in terms of job opportunities.
This is hard for me, because I really love LuckyOliver. It's a really clever concept which is a lot of fun to work on. The degree of responsibility I have here is very high, but so is my level of control and freedom. And I have definitely learned an awful lot. LuckyOliver has moved forward in a good way and I earnestly believe it will, at a minimum, situate itself as a popular and permanent stock site.
Most of all, it's my coworkers. My boss Bryan, fellow LuckyOliver employee Jill, accountant lady Rene, the city Zurbians Aiden, Rob, and Hunter, and the Santa Cruz Zurbians Jeremy and Ryan. All of them mean something very special to me at this point and we all have shared many great experiences, such as the scares and successes of LuckyO, the Supper Club, skydiving, Sushi Fridays, Twist, endless Starbucks runs, our awesome party at the Junkyard, having drinks at Katie Blooms, or partying up in the city. And just too many good times in the office to mention.
However, for me, an opportunity has come across that I feel I would be foolish not to take. I've been offered a position at Affinity Labs and I'm going to start there in September. I'll be moving back up to the city, most likely the Mission district or somewhere else kind of cool. I think their idea is a brilliant one with some considerable weight behind it.
I know it doesn't have the same cozy or fun feel as LuckyOliver, but at the end of the day I've kind of reevaluated how I want to spend this time, and I need to choose the path that I feel is most likely to serve me best in the end. So I'm headed to the Financial District. I'm a young guy and will likely work at many more companies before my time is through, and it's time for me to get a new perspective. Affinity also has some really bright people under its wing which I will be able to learn a lot from. I can't worry or wonder anymore if it's a mistake because I'm committed, and I'm going to do the best with it that I can. I can't be entirely sure what to expect, of course, but for now I'll just suck it up, buckle down and get work done, just like every other day. But I see good things on the horizon.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:06:28 GMT
It's been a pretty eventful month but I will try to keep this concise. The LuckyOliver party was a lot of fun and we all had a great time.
I went skydiving. Ryan, Jill, and Jill's husband also came. It was a pretty incredible experience, which I'd recommend, but I don't really see myself doing it again. The moment of jumping out of the plane goes much faster than you would expect. I didn't think the freefall was over in a blink; in fact it felt surprisingly long for me. And cold and windy.
I went to a couple web events, namely the SF Beta mixer at the Minna gallery, which LuckyOliver was sponsoring. I saw Thor there and had a good discussion with him. A week or so later was the Laughing Squid party. I rode a nifty Cycle-cide contraption. It was a beautiful venue. I saw David and Katie there and we hung out for a while and got tacos and in general I feel better about my relationship with them.
Afterwards we went to the Minna gallery again for an Anticon show. One guy was playing some interesting touch pad, which Aiden helped explain to me. Boom Bip was scheduled to be playing but we decided to get out of there because the current music sucked and Aiden wanted to visit the 2 to see Moe because it was his birthday the day before. Got some street food (hot dog wrapped in bacon).
Anyway, went to the 2, had a good time as usual, came home, and I just remember feeling something like bliss on the way back. A real moment where I appreciated the "now".
Work has been incredibly stressful lately, since there's just been loads of bugs which came up due to splitting our app up amongst extra servers and doing a long overdue software upgrade. We're basically trying to kill them all as they pop up, but it's a difficult process.
Interviewed someone for Zurb, he's a cool guy.
I joined a 5v5 arena team in WoW with my friends in-game. That's been a lot of fun and we're doing pretty well!
Some big stuff on my mind which I can't really touch on here but will when I get the chance.
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Posted by Joel
Thu, 12 Jul 2007 04:21:28 GMT
I'm in San Jose now in a studio. It's ok. I worry my neighbors will be too noisy. I might start looking for another place, most likely in the city, but now I have some time and things have calmed down a touch.
Only not really, because work has been really hectic lately due to a few technical problems. We're working it all out though and so far everything seems ok.
The move wasn't that bad. Aiden helped me move and we had some really good discussions afterwards down at Katie Bloom's in Campbell. I'm really glad to have a friend like him.
Tomorrow is our LuckyOliver party. We've had, as of this blog post, over 450 people RSVP. It's going to be insane.
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Posted by Joel
Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:32:13 GMT
I've decided to really start living my life. I'm not sure what has been going on with me the last year or two -- it's been an interesting ride.
I'm going to stay in San Jose for now, because it's close to work. This is good because I hate driving long distances, it's greener, generally less stressful. Plus it means during the weekdays I can focus on solitary habits, keep good discipline, all that sort of thing with greater ease.
I'm going to try to spend more time in the city. Living down here makes me appreciate it more; it doesn't feel tiresome and mundane and stressful, it feels exciting. Some buildup of boredom makes for a great release when I do go up there.
I'm going to go to more events. Web events. Art events. Shows. I've decided I'm not too good for it, but was just being bitter, resentful, cowardly, jealous. If you are a prominent figure in my life and I have scorned you in the last couple of years it was probably my own bitterness that spawned it and I apologize for that. I've made some bad decisions and I've learned from them.
I'm reading the hip blogs and using the hip services. And it's all fun. I feel somewhat relieved.
I need to buy a camera.
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